Dear editor,
I applaud the traffic control measures recently implemented by the City of Courtenay on Crown Isle Boulevard; reducing the speed limit to 40 km/h there and on other neighbourhood streets, and installing a three-way stop at Malahat and Crown Isle Blvd.
I understand this was the result of complaints and continued pressure by a group of Crown Isle residents, objecting to the constant speeding and noise of traffic flying by, unimpeded by stop signs or street lights, in contrast to Lerwick drive (which has many street lights), the primary arterial route between Courtenay and Comox in the area. However, the irony is that these selfsame residents, among many others, use Idiens Way as their primary “freeway” to Comox, Comox Base, the airport, and back, and constantly speed.
Residents on the Courtenay side of Idiens and the rural side to the east have seen at least a twentyfold increase in traffic volume, and been subjected to constant noise and excessive speeding from construction traffic and vehicles for over one decade since the City of Courtenay unilaterally punched the road through from Lerwick to Anderton. This was in spite of a petition signed by 99 per cent of the residents on the Courtenay side and the rural side of Idiens Way, to not put the road through. This was presented to Courtenay city council in 2008 but rejected offhand.
Commercial and residential Crown Isle development and increasing density has continued unabated for the last 20+ years, but no through roads east between Crown Isle and Anderton Road have been constructed as an alternative eastern exit to Idiens Way. This lack of foresight and planning by the City of Courtenay has resulted in Idiens Way morphing from a quiet urban and rural residential street to a speedway for individuals from both Courtenay and Comox avoiding the street lights on Lerwick and taking advantage of unobstructed passage from Lerwick to Anderton.
The installation of a street light on Ryan Road and Crown Isle Boulevard to access Cosco has also exacerbated the traffic flow between Comox and Courtenay. Drivers seem to prefer using Idiens Way and Crown Isle Boulevard as a route, instead of Lerwick to Ryan or Anderton Road to Ryan Rd., in spite of an 80 km/h speed limit on Ryan and 60 km/h on Lerwick.
There is a double standard here; urban residents of certain “exclusive” areas seem to have more influence on decisions made at the municipal level, while the concerns of rural residents, whose quality of life are adversely affected by urban development, are ignored.
Paul Jordan,
Courtenay